Testosterone is the talk of the town when it comes to improving your ability to show up to life–but is it really the silver bullet so many people make it out to be? We explore what your body does with testosterone, how human growth hormone (HGH) works, and why natural HGH alternatives like BioPro+ offer better (and healthier) results.
Testosterone, testosterone, testosterone–that’s a common topic of conversation in gyms, online forums, and everywhere else. When it comes to aiding metabolism, speeding up muscle recovery, bolstering performance, and getting better in bed, the almighty T is often presented as the answer to all our problems.
Be it the cell phones always in our pockets, the preservatives in our food, or the chemicals in our shampoo, male hormones are dropping at an alarming rate. It’s no surprise that testosterone treatments and supplements have taken over the zeitgeist–but for men, especially those who’ve left their 30s behind them, testosterone is less than half the battle.
Testosterone doesn’t work on its own. It needs human growth hormone, specifically the cell signals created by growth hormone, called growth factors, to see maximal absorption. Whether our body produces testosterone from a high-intensity workout, or we take the synthetic route to jack ourselves up, our body needs a solid baseline of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) to create the optimal effect. By focusing on testosterone and neglecting the HGH that it needs to be potent, we’re slapping a bandaid over the greater problem, rather than fixing it.
Our bodies have evolved to generate HGH and testosterone in balance with one another, with deep sleep, high-intensity exercise, and proper nutrition driving optimal health. The problem is that, like testosterone, drops in HGH start right after we finish puberty.
As this decline occurs through our 20s, 30s, and 40s, we start feeling (and seeing) the signs of age. From the sagging gut that won’t go away to the sluggish feeling of getting out of bed in the morning–we can’t shake the feeling that something is missing. In light of this, many people turn to synthetic testosterone. Others–who have done little more research on the interplay between T and HGH–opt into expensive treatments for receiving synthetic HGH.
But just taking either T or HGH in synthetic forms can have devastating effects. If your body is getting its testosterone from an outside source, it will stop producing it naturally and suppress your luteinizing and follicle-stimulating hormones (which are needed to produce your sperm). Synthetic HGH comes with its own side effects, as well as a hefty price tag.
So there are three takeaways. One, as we age, our body starts to lack the hormones we need to feel and perform at our best. Two, supplying HGH to our body is more important than pumping ourselves up with testosterone. Three, the synthetic route is not the way to go.
We’ve been looking for a solution–and one product has been able to take these three factors into consideration. BioPro+ is a 100% non-synthetic alternative to prescription HGH. It’s able to compete with expensive synthetic HGH treatments, all while ditching the needles, side effects, and doctor visits.
We first discovered BioPro+ from the MMA community. A cult hit in this space for speeding up recovery and boosting performance, we were even pleasantly surprised to see the product being offered and recommended by an international group of physicians.
Wanting to learn more about BioPro+ and the science behind it, we reached out to Dustin Baker, President of BioProtein Technology, the company that makes BioPro+.
“The purpose of a hormone is to create a chemical catalyst to create a change,” Baker says.
He goes on to explain that growth hormone, when secreted by our pituitary glands, is sent to the liver, which converts it into what are commonly referred to as growth factors. These are no longer hormones–they are protein cytokines, which are chains that form signals that communicate with our cells.
“If it’s a muscle cell, for example, it’s a protein cytokine called IGF-1,” Baker says. “This goes to that muscle cell and it triggers it to multiply and differentiate.”
Creating that chain that communicates with your muscle cells is key to muscle growth and recovery–not HGH itself. HGH is only the start of the process, which is the secret to BioPro+’s success.
“BioPro+ is just a formulation of those cell signals,” Baker explains. “It’s a formulation of the protein cytokines. So instead of replacing the hormone or stimulating your own glandular function, which comes with side effects, we’re just giving you the end result.”
So just as taking synthetic testosterone only gets you halfway to the results you want, synthetic HGH treatments are also only working as middlemen for what your body actually needs to recover and grow muscles and improve performance.
“We’re filling in the gaps of growth hormone,” Baker says, “considering it depletes every single year after you finish puberty. We’re only filling up your gas tank and don’t have the ability, by design, to ever overfill it–because that’s where problems occur. We don’t want any part of that. We want to help you maximize and optimize your life, not put you in an abnormal space.”
What’s important is that you don’t get caught up in the hype around testosterone, or synthetic HGH for that matter. The signs of aging can be a scary thing–and it’s important that any supplements, products, or treatments that you use to get back to baseline are ones designed to work with your body’s natural processes–rather than overriding them.
